Women Over 55 Make the Best Bosses. Here's Proof

Need someone to solve a company's most complex problems? Hire a woman. According to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 6,000 European professionals, women ages 55 and older make up the highest percentage of strategic leaders who are best able to transform organizations and solve problems that "directly challenge business-as-usual thinking and even the business model itself." Only 8 percent of leaders have this ability at all—and older women in particular seem to have a knack for thinking ahead and taking action. From the report: "[Strategists] see both the vision and detail, employ positive language, and exercise power courageously. They also understand the complexity of the environment in which they're working and are able to employ passionate detachment." Pair strong leadership ability with the wisdom that comes from experience, and perhaps it's not so surprising that the top three women on the recently released Forbes's Most Powerful Women list are women in their 60s. Angela Merkel is 60; Hillary Clinton is 67; and Janet Yellen is 68. Eight of the top 20 women on the list are 50 or older, and 13 are over 55 (including the 61-year-old Oprah Winfrey, who comes in at number 12.) And yet, consultant Jessica Leith

Need someone to solve a company's most complex problems? Hire a woman. According to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 6,000 European professionals, women ages 55 and older make up the highest percentage of strategic leaders who are best able to transform organizations and solve problems that "directly challenge business-as-usual thinking and even the business model itself." Only 8 percent of leaders have this ability at all—and older women in particular seem to have a knack for thinking ahead and taking action.

From the report: "[Strategists] see both the vision and detail, employ positive language, and exercise power courageously. They also understand the complexity of the environment in which they're working and are able to employ passionate detachment."

Pair strong leadership ability with the wisdom that comes from experience, and perhaps it's not so surprising that the top three women on the recently released Forbes's Most Powerful Women list are women in their 60s. Angela Merkel is 60; Hillary Clinton is 67; and Janet Yellen is 68. Eight of the top 20 women on the list are 50 or older, and 13 are over 55 (including the 61-year-old Oprah Winfrey, who comes in at number 12.)

And yet, consultant Jessica Leith told The Telegraph that it is precisely women 55 and older who are most likely to be overlooked when companies are filling top spots. "Historically, women over the age of 55 would not have been an area of focus, but as the research suggests, this pool of talent might hold the key transformation and in some cases, business survival," she said.

"Businesses must work hard to attract and retain Strategists because they hold the keys to transformation and, in some cases, survival," says David Lancefield, PwC partner, strategy and economics.

To start, companies need to actually hire more female leaders. Women hold less than 5 percent of all CEO positions at S&P 500 companies, and account for roughly just 14 percent of leadership roles. And even on the rare occasions that women do make it into the top tier of management, they are often compensated less than their male peers. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York report found that female executives not only earned a lesser base salary but but also received fewer stock options and lower bonuses.

There is hope. A separate PwC report from March found that millennial women are the most confident and ambitious of any other generation, and almost half of them believe they can rise to the top ranks with their current employer.

Watch Goldman Sachs' Dina Powell share her advice on how to become a leader: